A week after conceding a goal early against Derby at Vicarage Road, Watford found themselves behind at Sheffield United with barely two minutes on the clock.

Starting slowly was one of last season’s problems that had apparently been put to bed, but has now reared its ugly head twice in a week.

“You don’t create a game plan to then go and start 1-0 down, and so when you do it’s difficult at a place like this,” admitted Tom Cleverley.

“It meant they could then take less risks, they could commit less players forwards and they can be patient in possession because they are already a goal ahead.

“The start was definitely not ideal and it’s something we’ll address.”

It wasn’t as if the Blades had to work unduly hard to get the goal either.

“I’ll have to watch the game back but it was a long ball from their goalkeeper, and we have been so good at dealing with those sort of basics,” the Watford head coach reflected.

“That’s why we’ve been hard to beat, and yet today we’ve let the ball travel 70 yards, let it bounce and it ends up in our box too easily.

“Against Derby we switched off a little bit from a short throw-in.

“It’s something we’ll look at, including the whole preparation of our day to make sure our players are like sprinters out the blocks.

“If you aren’t like that, then you’ll get hurt like we have.”

Once the ball had got into Watford’s box, Callum O’Hare’s passage to the by-line – and then along it – was made a little easier as Francisco Sierralta tried to keep pace with him while holding both his hands behind his back.

“I’ve not watched the goal back yet, so I can’t comment too much on that,” said Cleverley.

“It’s a South American trait, that one.

“The handball laws and the uncertainty around them haven’t helped.

“Of course you’d like to see your defenders defending fully committed, but these are traits that have been introduced to the game with the new laws.”